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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

I love a good scarf.After my recent fight with Hashimoto’s Disease, I came out the loser weighing several more pounds and tragically had to (temporarily) bid adieu to many of my closet favorites.HOWEVER, a girl can still accessorize and this might be what’s saved my sanity for the past few years while I’m working through my health issues.Bags, scarves and shoes are very much still in the mix and it’s through key accessories that I’ve been able to keep my fashion-dignity intact.

It was one night scrolling for the perfect scarf that I came across the idea to make one of my own using my illustrations as the print.I thought about what the perfect scarf might look like and the colors I wanted to include and the Noir Scarf was born.I started with a skull and floral concept inspired by my Grandmother’s flower bushes in her back yard.She had so many flowers in just the right shades including a rose bush that she was particularly proud of.I wanted to capture the femininity of her floral palette as well as something to give it a little edge which reminded me of my all time favorite Alexander McQueen scarf that I wear again and again.

So, I painted every species of flower known to man (almost) and a respectable skull and got to work arranging them in what I thought to be the scarf of a generation.As soon as my artwork was ready, I set out to find a factory that printed scarves on 100% silk.I have a lot of experience communicating with factories overseas from my humble beginnings as a womenswear designer, so choosing a factory out of the country was an option I was open to.I finally landed a contact at a great silk factory in China and started the long laborious project of back-and-forth emails and missed connections with my factory rep.

50 emails and a month later, I received a package with my first prototype and I was pumped to say the least.After ripping the package into shreds and holding up my prize, I was less than impressed.The silk was beautiful, the hems expertly sewn but my artwork looked drab and I knew I had to re-design.There weren’t nearly enough flowers and the artwork was so big that when wearing the scarf, the skull looked like a weird gross mushroom in the middle.Needless to say that would not do.

50 more emails and another month later and I finally had the second package.I was almost afraid to open it for fear of this project never coming to an end, but this time my vision had finally come to fruition and I was very happy with the finished product.I placed my order for a big batch and called my photographer, Michi Rezin to do a mini photoshoot of the scarf in action.

Michi might be a genius.I absolutely love working with her and have never seen a photographer so able to capture a client’s exact thoughts with a camera.We rented an adorable vintage loft in Manhattan for two hours for our shoot and my friend, Chel, (from Chel Loves Wine) came to model for me.I wanted the scarf to look like it was floating through the air, which turns out is nearly impossible to do.With my husband, Zac, and Michi’s assistant both teetering on ladders, and dropping it on the count of three (on three, not after) Michi captured exactly what I was looking for.

I had so much fun working on my scarf and seeing one of my dreams come to life through a lot of work and little razzle dazzle.Today the scarf goes live on my new site!AND as a gift to all of you who stuck around till the end of this post, below is a free phone wallpaper download with my skull and floral artwork.All you have to do is click the link, which will take you to Dropbox, click the three dots at the top right, and then download.I hope you enjoy!

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Since I was just a kid I’ve always had a very strong entrepreneurial spirit.I can’t even count on both hands my various schemes to make money before I was of legal age to work: like a true young capitalist I was hungry for my next dollar.I once made a deal with my parents that I would be paid 5 cents for every cigarette butt I picked up from their construction site (no shame in this game).

This ambitious character followed me through college and beyond.I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing in 2011 when I heard about Etsy for the first time - within months my first shop was open for business and I was ready to cash in!As a fashion design student, my first shop was a way for me to sell the things I was sewing in my free time and make a little cash on the side: win/win.

Etsy was a different creature in those days - wide eyed and innocent.Being featured on the front page could send your shop into a viral frenzy: a veritable wealth of Etsy fame and fortune.There was a sense of community between customer and creator.Treasuries were a creative way to group your favorite complimentary products for others to explore and it all served as a great way to promote hand-made products within the Etsy community.

As time has passed, Etsy has implemented many changes: new layouts, new algorithms, custom website options, and the latest: “Etsy Payments”.Many of these changes have served to upset sellers in the Etsy community as with any forced changes on a social platform but in the end, people adapt and become accustomed to a new way of doing things.That is, until Etsy crossed a line last spring, force closing shops that did not comply with their new “Etsy Payments” interface.

“Etsy Payments” is a way for Etsy to run payments into a stand-alone account controlled by Etsy themselves.Many sellers prefer Paypal, as money from sales are directly deposited into the seller’s account, avoiding any third party handling their money and any wait time to transfer funds from one account to another.Many sellers rely on this automatic payment to pay for materials used for any commissioned products.

Etsy describes “Etsy Payments” as “a simplified way to receive payments" and states that "you can get paid daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Request additional deposits anytime.”However, my experience with the platform was much different.My account was automatically suspended when I did not opt into “Etsy Payments” in May.Once I connected a bank account to my shop, sales began depositing into my "Etsy Payments" account and I was not able to transfer those funds automatically.Last month, a rather large sale was tied up in that third-party account for two weeks -I was told I needed to add a credit card to my account in order to access those funds.My question is: WHY?Call me old fashioned but why does Etsy need every shred of my financial information to deposit money that is already mine?

Etsy’s new payment program will serve to increase their revenue by capitalizing on payment processing fees that Paypal would have charged on those sales. They have stated that they will be phasing out Paypal completely within the next few months.Apparently I’m not the only one who finds this upsetting.Etsy reportedly lost tens of thousands of sellers within a few days following this transition, not counting accounts that were suspended from non-compliance.

The most upsetting problem about Etsy taking full control over payments through their site is their lack of customer care - they don’t offer even a fraction of Paypal’s reliability and over-the-phone customer service. Currently the only way to reach out to Etsy’s customer service is through email which is notorious for going unanswered; a worrisome matter when finances are involved.

All of these issues (and more) have weighed on my soul for the last few weeks and I have decided to take matters into my own hands.My work is far too valuable to sit on a site where I have such little influence on how sales are made.It feels refreshing to have opened a shop on my own site that I have full financial and creative control over.I am now focusing my attention on my own marketplace where listings are free and no fees are collected based on my sales and earnings. Free at last...free at last...